The Making of the World’s Fastest IRONMAN

Melissa Hauschildt went from the operating table to a world record in under a year. Here's how her record day played out.

by Jordan Cantwell

Less than a year ago, Australia’s Melissa Hauschildt was lying on an operating table when blood started spurting all over the operating theater. The surgeon had accidentally sliced through a major artery and he was forced to squeeze the artery for more than 45 minutes until an additional surgeon could join the team to assist. This blunder happened during a procedure to unkink one of Hauschildt’s common iliac arteries, a disorder that had been causing numbness in her leg while cycling. "I lost a lot of blood, needing two blood transfusions during the operation and another two after," Hauschildt says of the normally straightforward procedure.

It feels like a miracle to Hauschildt that just 11 months later she went on to record the fastest ever IRONMAN time for a woman, winning the IRONMAN North American Championship, Texas in 8:31:04. While the operation was successful in fixing her kinked artery, the additional complications surrounding the operation left her weak for months. She believes the post-op fatigue she experienced impacted her performance at last year’s IRONMAN World Championship in Hawaii, where she placed a disappointing 14th.

Towards the end of 2017, Hauschildt continued to gain strength and recover from the surgery. Fueled by the failure to perform in Kona, she ripped off an impressive end of season racing streak, taking wins at IRONMAN 70.3 Western Sydney and IRONMAN Western Australia. Her 2018 season got off to a winning start, including a victory at IRONMAN 70.3 Texas in Galveston just three weeks before the full Monty in The Woodlands.

But while the 12-minute winning margin in Texas may give the impression of an easy victory, Hauschildt’s account of the race paints a quite different picture.

1 Part Attitude

With a background as a steeplechaser in track and field, swimming is Hauschildt’s weakest triathlon discipline. She recalls that she lost touch with the main pack of swimmers very early in the non-wetsuit swim and was forced to swim alone. She didn’t panic, however, but got into "a good relaxed rhythm," and eventually exited the swim in 8th overall, approximately 3 minutes down on her biggest competition.

While it's clear that Hauschildt was a little frustrated at losing ground so early in the race, she didn’t let her swim determine her mood—or her race. Despite exiting the water almost 11 minutes behind race leader Lauren Brandon, her deficit to other strong bike-runners—such as IRONMAN champions Michelle Vesterby and Jocelyn McCauley—was only 3 minutes, a gap she considered to be manageable.

2 Parts Race Strategy

Hauschildt’s strategy on the bike was to ride herself to the front of the race by the time she hit T2. She rode alone, focusing on her own effort for the first third of the bike ride, at which point Jodie Robertson and Sara Svensk caught her. Hauschildt recounts that their group "caught up to Meredith [Kessler] and Michelle [Vesterby] on the second lap of the two lap course," but that it was difficult to pull away from the group after that. With light race day winds and minimal terrain changes, the 12- meter draft zone offered some benefit to those behind so Hauschildt was unable to distance herself from the pack.

While Hauschildt did not achieve her goal of leading into T2, she had halved the lead to the front of the race by the time she got off the bike by remaining calm and riding her own race as much as possible. Unfortunately, several high-caliber runners accompanied her as Robertson and McCauley got off the bike within a few seconds of her. This promoted Hauschildt to speed through T2 to gap these fleet-footed women as quickly as possible.

A Dash of Lessons Learned

Once on the run, Hauschildt says she felt amazing and had worked her way to the head of the race by the 7-mile mark. On the surface, it appears that she sailed to victory relatively easily, posting a race-best run of 2:57:07 and a winning margin in excess of 12 minutes. "I felt really strong running but my feet were causing me a lot of pain," bemoans Hauschildt. It’s not the first time she’s experienced this problem in a race as she has a dropped 3rd metatarsal bone in her foot, which can become painful and inflamed on impact. New orthotics had fixed the problem, but Hauschildt made a last-minute decision to wear shoes a half size bigger for IRONMAN Texas.

"The metatarsal dome was not in the right spot," says Hauschildt. "I got a massive blood blister from the met dome rubbing on my arch!" The pain in her feet caused her pace to drop a little in the last 10km of the run, but she had built enough of a cushion that it didn’t matter. It was a painful way to learn the lesson of not making game-time equipment changes, but luckily it didn't change the race outcome for Hauschildt.

Yields: The World’s fastest IRONMAN

Hauschildt’s overall time of 8:31:04 is the fastest recorded women's time for an IRONMAN distance race. While she was unaware of the overall time during the race, learning the news after she breasted the tape was a huge boost. "It’s a privilege to have posted the world’s best time," she smiles, "but I don’t think times mean much in IRONMAN racing"—a way of acknowledging that courses, terrain, and weather conditions always make for a highly variable experience when it comes to IRONMAN racing. Still, Melissa, we salute you!

Jordan Cantwell is a multiple-time IRONMAN finisher, Kona qualifier, and writer living in San Francisco.